Pakistan amends rape law 'to help women'

Pakistan's lower house of parliament has voted to put the crime
of rape under the civil penal code, curtailing the scope of Islamic
laws that rights groups have long criticised as unfair to
women.

The Women's Protection Bill was seen as a barometer of President
Pervez Musharraf's commitment to his vision of "enlightened
moderation" and a major battle in a struggle between progressive
forces and religious conservatives over the Muslim nation's
course.

Musharraf said in a television address to the nation later on
Wednesday the bill was part of a government campaign to empower
women launched in 2000, soon after he seized power in a bloodless
coup.

"We should be proud of it," Musharraf said.

"The time has come for the moderate elements in Pakistan to come
forward and show their real force to these extremists and tell the
extremists they will have no more say in Pakistan," he said.

The Islamic laws, known as the Hudood Ordinances, were
introduced by a military ruler, President Zia-ul-Haq, in 1979.

They made a rape victim liable to prosecution for adultery if
she could not produce four male witnesses to the assault.

The main amendment approved on Wednesday takes rape out of the
sphere of religious law and puts it under the penal code. That does
away with the need for male witnesses and will allow convictions to
be made on the basis of forensic and circumstantial evidence.

The amendment bill must be approved by the upper house of
parliament before it becomes law.

Human rights campaigners have long pressed for total repeal of
the Islamic laws, but have welcomed moves to amend them.

The amendments were fiercely opposed by an alliance of Islamist
parties, which make up the main opposition bloc in parliament.

Islamist lawmakers walked out of parliament, boycotting the
vote, after leader Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman told the assembly the
change to the law would encourage free sex.

"This is an attempt to create a free sex zone in Pakistan," he
said.

"Existing laws are correct and should be maintained ... The
changes are not in line with Islamic teaching."

Musharraf rejected that.

"I assure the nation that this bill is absolutely in line with
the Koran and teaching of the Prophet. There is no violation of the
Koran or the Prophet's teaching," he said.

In an apparent concession to conservatives, an amendment was
introduced shortly before the vote setting down punishment of up to
five years in prison for extra-marital sex, though sex outside
marriage had always been an offence under laws on adultery.

Opposition members of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's
more liberal Pakistan People's Party supported the bill.

The amendments also introduced the concept of statutory rape,
outlawing sex with girls under 16. The Islamic code had banned sex
with girls before puberty.

The government abandoned an attempt to pass the bill in
September in the face of a threat from Rehman's Muttahida
Majlis-e-Amal alliance to pull out of the national and provincial
assemblies if it was passed.

The Islamist leader did not repeat that threat on Wednesday, and
analysts said it was unlikely the religious parties would risk
losing influence.